In what ways InterStar Translations is different from other translation and interpretation agencies?

Our company is owned by a professional conference interpreter who is a member of AIIC – International Association of Conference Interpreters. AIIC has been promoting high standards of language interpretation and quality for over 60 years. It is a globally recognized interpreter association.

We collect inputs from our potential client, prepare an estimate, have the estimate approved by the client, sign contract(s) with the client, prepare for the event, perform our services, and invoice our client. A contract is needed to provide any service.

PS: All estimates assume that the variable expenses (airfare, hotels etc) may be within +/- 20% of the estimate with given project parameters. We always charge our clients for such expenses at cost and provide receipts where available.

Yes, isolation booths or whispering interpretation equipment can be provided. Simultaneous interpretation in the booth also requires interpreters to be able to hear everything that is being said in the room via microphones (audio services, a “full house feed”.)

We can provide either simultaneous interpretation equipment or both audio services and equipment as needed. We work with professional simultaneous interpretation companies providing quality equipment, and we own equipment too. We avoid AV companies that have little or no experience with simultaneous interpretation equipment, because it is a very specialized area.

Description of how we hire professional conference and consecutive interpreters.

No. We use local interpreters first, however, we prefer to use experienced interpreters who we trust regardless where their professional domicile is. Travel costs are negligible compared to the additional quality and peace of mind.

Sometimes quality local interpreters may not be available. Frequent domestic and international travel by interpreters is standard practice in the industry.

We can always discuss your project and customize our prices for you, however, for conference interpretation we charge by the day.

Our interpreters are highly qualified and experienced freelancers. Even if they work for 5 minutes, they will not be able to sell the rest of the time on that day to anyone else. Therefore, we have to charge by the day. It is standard practice on the high end interpretation market.

our cost per word of the original text includes professional translation and editing by a different editor. Special formatting, DTP and other services are extra and charged at per hour rates as needed. One round of corrections is included in the price, however, changes by the client and additional text modifications are charged extra. We provide an estimate before we start work and it has to be approved by our client.

For Interpretation:

in case of consecutive, simultaneous, and escort interpretation we follow recommendations laid out by the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC) as far as number of interpreters, shift duration, etc.

For conference interpretation our rates are charged for the standard 6 hour day with overtime if any.

Our professional conference interpreters commit their time and effort to the project. They spend a lot of time preparing for confirmed assignments.

They will not be able to find other assignments on a short notice if the your event is postponed, moved or cancelled. Therefore, we have to charge a cancellation/change fee after we sign a contract with our client and with them.

It is usually 50% of the professional fee if the change/cancellation/move happens earlier than 30 days before the beginning of the event, and 100% of the professional fee if it happens later than 30 days before the beginning of the event plus all relevant actual expenses.